How to engineer the life you want
it took me roughly 10 months
There's a preventable trap I'm seeing with how most people organize their lives.
Especially the select few wanting to live a profoundly authentic life.
A lifestyle that suits them.
But their visions keep evolving. Their goals and desires change. Everything feels disconnected.
New interests appear.
The weekly routines and daily tasks feel disconnected from it all.
Chaos.
Because their life organization systems don't evolve alongside them.
It's taken me 10 months to create a system that works for me. A mental framework I actually like. So I've turned it into a template, and I'll show you how to make your own template too.
Let's do a Linkin Park and break this fucking habit.
Or don’t break it and become compressible.
When life hands you lemons, you say "yes" (you fucking hate lemons)
If you have a vision, some goals, a chaotic calendar, or lot's of to-do lists that feel disconnected, congratulations.
You are not alone my friend.
You have a broken system.
Maybe you do have a vision, and it bolts you out of bed each morning. But your life isn't really changing all that much. You set goals regularly. But you've countless to-do lists, with every task feeling random. And what happens when your vision changes? Your interests evolve because you've become more authentic; the literal goal of self-actualization - to become fully you.
You don't want to do jiu-jitsu this month because you want to focus on growing your Substack newsletter.
Yeah, me too.
Then your system does a Post Malone.
It falls apart.
There's a reason for this.
Most of your goals aren't yours to begin with.
If you don't have a vision for what you want your life to be, you'll become compressible.
What do I mean by compressible? Compression stems from conformity - accepting of societal expectations because you've no real choice.
(beware! the dreaded AI-wrote-this dash! he's done it twice now! don't worry, i put them both there myself hehe.)
Being compressible means you have no reason to say "no" to the goals that life hands you. Goals you're expected to have, whether you want them or not.
Do you want to write every morning for 2 hours? Train your body while your mind rests in the afternoons? Go back to writing before spending your evening learning, socializing, and doing jiu-jitsu with the lads?
Again.
me. fucking. too.
This is actually what my routine looks like. I just have to fit it in around my full time job. This newsletter will show you the system that helps me live the life I want.
If you don't try to define your own goals, you'll live someone else's life. And worse, you'll be competing with everyone else, for average lifestyles, that none of the competitors even want in the first place.
The same wake-up-late routine. You can't be creative in the morning because that's not practical, you need to work, and fuck getting up early. Same with training your body during the day.
Most people like this do not have a vision. Don't have one, and your goal systems will always feel disconnected.
The authentic life engineers
Your life organization system feels disconnected because most goals aren't authentically your own.
Because goals are how you engineer an authentic life.
Now, a quote from Naval Ravikant, because I've been obsessed with his words this past week:
"If you want to be unique, you have to be authentic. If you want to be authentic, stop listening to everyone and everything else. It's drowning 'you' out."
A vision is an authenticity detector.
It's a way of testing whether your goals are genuinely yours. If you even care to achieve them.
A boring life is exactly that.
Fucking boring.
Wake up. Go to work. Go home. TikTok. Bed.
I think it's a fucking crime that we don't send real help to people like this.
Human beings are made for adventure. We're made to become something. To become.
Become what?
Fully ourselves.
Each and every one of us.
A vision is also a map to becoming authentic, because the vision itself is an expression of your authenticity. Your interests, values, what you desire and absolutely do not want from life.
It's just a piece of you.
Having an authentic vision creates a compelling life with:
Adventure - How you solve and get beaten up by problems
Unpredictability - Problems arise as your vision evolves
Becoming - self-actualizing by creating solutions and redefining your vision
You discover what makes you authentic by making mistakes. Fucking about. Hate the degree you picked? Congratulations sir, join the club! But you've gained clarity.
Don't like the chipotle sauce you covered your beef and rice in?
First of all, monster… for saying yes. But once again, you've gained clarity.
You do like writing? You do like writing in the morning time? You do like training your body and expanding your mind during the rest of the day?
Ah, so you've found something out about yourself. Something you care about.
If a goal comes from an authentic vision, from a place of genuine intrigue, of authenticity. Failing to adopt a meaningful system will not be an option.
How to engineer an authentic life
You need a hell to run away from. This is your anti-vision, your source of motivation.
You need something to strive towards. This is your heaven, your ideal like in 5 years time. This is your source of goals.
And you'll care about achieving them if this vision is authentic.
Next up, work backwards from your vision.
What needs to be that case, what needs to happen or be true, in 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, the next 3 months, this week, and today.
You to-do list will be derived from these goals. You'll give yourself 2-3 deep work tasks each day.
It doesn't seem like a lot though.
But they're big movers. Heavy hitters. Small actions move mountains when they have a purpose.
It all starts from the vision, and stays connected to the vision.
vision → goals → tasks
If one part changes, the whole system evolves to suit that change.
Here's how to make your own template.
(1) The Authenticity Test
Your vision comes in two forms: your anti-vision (hell) and vision (heaven).
This should take about 20 minutes minimum.
Write 200-300 words describing your life in 3-5 years if you changed nothing.
This is your Hell.
Now, write 200-300 words describing your ideal life in 3-5 years.
This is your Heaven.
Now.
Which of the following sounds better to you? (you can pick either.)
Struggling to wake up at 9am. Tolerating a job I don't care for. Time outside of work is Netflix and doomscrolling. I have no sense of purpose. My mind is overwhelmed constantly because it has no real creative outlet. My body feels weak, and I'm not living life how I want to be living it.
Or…
Leaping out of bed at 7am excited to write. Writing for 2 hours every morning. I building a meaningful project, a newsletter. My afternoons or time coming in the door from work is spent training my body. Lifting or BJJ. In the evenings I'm reading or socializing.
This is why this exercise is so effective.
Having your own hell in the back of your mind will give you something to run from.
Your source of motivation.
Having your own heaven will give you something to strive for. An authentic mission, goals that are genuinely important to you on a deep, emotional level.
Your source of meaningful goals.
(2) Work Backwards Hierarchically
This stage is where 90% of people become lost.
To not get lost, write down 2-3 goals maximum under each headline:
3-5 Year Vision (your heaven)
1 Year Targets (what your life must be in 12 months)
3 Month Targets (work blocks)
Weekly Actions (specific tasks this week)
In 3-5 years you might want 20,000 newsletter subscribers, and to be earning a full-time income from writing 2 hours a day.
Your first year would probably require consistent newsletters, and your first 5,000 subs.
Your next 3 month targets will need 12 newsletters minimum, with each one improving on the last in some area.
This week you'll write a newsletter, write short form posts, and create a lead magnet.
The reason why I don't want you having any more than 2-3 goals under each heading is simple. You want to keep the list concise but with the most impact. Having less goals makes it easier to change them (if you vision changes) and it gives you wiggle room.
(3) Keep It Adaptable
A bad plan is better than no plan, because a bad plan can be made better.
This is what will happen to your vision.
It will change because your desires will change. You'll act, gather information, and learn something about yourself. Your real interests. What you would love in an ideal life. This is all very good.
So don't stress if (when) your vision does change.
Rewrite you goals if needed.
Make sure your tasks still align with your goals.
Just stay flexible. Keep your mind flexible and ready to adapt. This is what makes this system work so well.
If you want a template you can use this one I’ve made.
I've been following it for almost a year now, or at least a variant of it. It's based on my current process as it stands today.
Here’s what it looks like in a second brain software:
I use Kortex. But you can use this template in Notion or Obsidian. Literally any writing software.
If you want to use AI to create detailed self improvement plans based on your specific goals, you can check out my Prompt Library.
Thanks for reading, and as always.
You are an absolute legend!
- Craig :)
Check out my other newsletters:
What do you do when you fall off your systems? Most of the time, I find myself going back to change my goals/priorities but I'm questioning if I should be doing that